Warning: Undefined array key "rbname" in /data/rantburg.com/www/rantburg/pgrecentorg.php on line 14
Hello !

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Hariri Meets Aides of Franjieh, Jumblat, Berri as PSP Delegation Visits Speaker

2016-10-20

[An Nahar] al-Mustaqbal ... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri... Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's assassination. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too. held separate talks Tuesday at the Center House with representatives of Marada Movement the personal militia of Suleiman Franjieh, president of Lebanon at the outbreak of the civil war, currently Syrian toadies, but you never know when that could change... chief MP Suleiman Franjieh, Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Wally Jumblat ... Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times. He'll sell you his friends for a dollar, but family comes higher because of shipping and handling... and Speaker Nabih Knobby Berri Speaker of the Lebanese parliament, a member of AMAL, a not very subtle Hizbullah sock puppet... Hariri's talks with Health Minister Wael Abou Faour, who is close to Jumblat, tackled "the current developments in the country," Hariri's press office said in a statement. The ex-PM later met with Culture Minister Rony Araiji and ex-minister Youssef Saade of Franieh's Marada Movement in the presence of his adviser ex-MP Ghattas Khoury. Talks addressed the latest political developments. Later on Tuesday, Hariri met at the Center House with Berri's aide and Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil. "The meeting lasted ten minutes and Khalil conveyed a message to Hariri," LBCI television said. Following the meeting, a PSP delegation comprising Taimur Jumblat, Wael Abou Faour, Akram Shehayyeb and Ghazi Aridi visited Ain el-Tineh for talks with Berri in Khalil's presence.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

No Contact between Jumblat and Syria

2012-01-09

[An Nahar] Public Works Minister Ghazi Aridi confirmed on Sunday that relations between Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Wally Jumblat ... Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times. He'll sell you his friends for a dollar, but family comes higher because of shipping and handling... and the Assad regime have reached a low point over the situation in Syria. In remarks to pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat, Aridi said: "Contacts between MP Walid Jumblat and the Syrian regime have been cut over the differences on the situation in Syria." Asked if he had tried to reach Syrian authorities lately, the minister, who is also a PSP official, said: "I haven't tried to contact them and haven't asked for a meeting and in their turn they haven't contacted us." "A military and security solution in Syria would only lead to more complication," he told the newspaper. Aridi said the Syrian crisis would not end unless the government adopts a political situation. "The more this solution comes late, the higher the price will be." Jumblat said on Tuesday that the crisis in Syria "cannot be resolved through security measures, but by introducing a radical change to the ruling regime." Aridi wondered why Jumblat would be criticized for preaching a political solution while Russia, which is Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... ' top ally, is also advising it to give up the deadly crackdown.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Jumblat Seeks Mending Ties with Old Allies, Aims at Reviving Democratic Gathering

2011-11-17

[An Nahar] Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Wally Jumblat ... Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times. He'll sell you his friends for a dollar, but family comes higher because of shipping and handling... is seeking to revive the "Democratic Gathering," al-Liwaa newspaper reported on Wednesday. Wally's getting tired of snuggling with Nasrallah and Berri, at least for awhile. "He is paving way to meet with ex-Prime Minister Saad Hariri," Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's liquidation. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too. sources told the daily. Jumblat is mending ties with old allies after he met on Tuesday a delegation from al-Mustaqbal ... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri... movement to restore the Democratic Gathering in Mukhtara, the newspaper said. In January 2007 Jumblat announced the end of his Democratic Gathering parliamentary bloc, after four MPs of the 11-member gathering decided not to back his candidate for the premiership. He named his new bloc the National Struggle Front including MPs Ghazi Aridi, Wael Abu Faour, Akram Shehayyeb, Alaeddine Terro, Nehme Tohme and Elie Aoun. The four MPs who are not part of Jumblat's bloc anymore are Marwan Hamadeh, Henry Helou, Antoine Saad and Fouad al-Saad. The meeting was attended by members of the PSP leadership and al-Mustaqbal officials Ahmed Fatfat, Hadi Hobeish and Ziad al-Qaderi. The daily reported that the meeting was held away from the media spotlight. However, Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried... sources told al-Liwaa that the gatherers discussed the latest developments concerning the Syrian turmoil and the possible repercussions of the regime collapse, the funding of the Special Tribunal for Leb probing the liquidation of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri, and the new electoral draft law. They noted that the meeting was successful and was aimed at restoring the relations between the two sides. PSP sources said that the meeting was to discuss the electoral draft law. Both sides agreed on coordinating their stances regarding all the issues. Al-Liwaa reported that a delegation from the PSP leadership will meet with Secretary General of Mustaqbal movement Ahmed Hariri on Tuesday, and other party leaders in the next few days after the establishment of the PSP's new leadership council.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Jumblat Stresses 'Urgent Reform' in Syria

2011-10-01

[An Nahar] Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Wally Jumblat ... Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times. He'll sell you his friends for a dollar, but family comes higher because of shipping and handling... reiterated on Friday that he has advised the Syrian leadership to quickly implement reforms rather than cracking down on protestors. In remarks to As Safir daily, he said: "The Syrian regime should adopt qualitative and urgent reform steps." "This is my advice but they are free in taking the appropriate decision," the Druze leader said. Jumblat's remarks came after he dispatched Public Works Minister Ghazi Aridi to Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... where he met with the assistant of the Syrian vice president, Maj. Gen. Mohammed Nassif, As Safir said. The PSP chief also denied that he had changed his stance on Hizbullah's arms, saying he holds onto his theory that the state should gradually absorb the weapons when the party decides on such a move and when the political and military circumstances are ripe. But until then, the army-people-resistance equation remains valid, he said. Jumblat stressed however that putting Hizbullah's arms under the control of the state is a must and would lead to the full establishment of the state by giving it the right to make war and peace decisions. Asked what he meant by telling an Egyptian TV earlier in the week that he had a gun pointed at his head, the politician said he was speaking about the period when he was a member of the March 14 Those are the good guys, insofar as Leb has good guys... forces whose supporters were being targeted in bombing attacks. "I was describing the difficult circumstances of the period between 2004 and 2008," he told As Safir. "I didn't intend to hint that I fell out of March 14 and moved to another position under pressure." He also rejected being forced into proving his "good conduct from time to time." "I am not in a position to sit at periodic exams or carry out blood tests to check my political choices," Jumblat added.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Jumblat-Hizbullah Ties in Tatters over al-Rahi's Statements

2011-09-14

Relations between Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Wally Jumblat ... Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times. He'll sell you his friends for a dollar, but family comes higher because of shipping and handling... and Hizbullah seem to be reaching an all-time low after the Shiite party's al-Manar TV station slammed the Druze leader for criticizing Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi. That sounds like junior high girls playing drama queen games. Al-Manar said in reference to Jumblat in its newscast on Monday that some officials remain steadfast in their stances while others tend to swing to adjust to the "regional winds." Manar acts like it's surprised. That's been Wally's and the other warlords' modus operandi for decades. The network compared the PSP chief to the Lebanese Forces A Christian political party founded by Bashir Gemayel, who was then bumped off when he was elected president of Leb... in its criticism of al-Rahi over his statements on the Syrian crisis and Hizbullah's weapons. PSP sources told al-Akhbar daily published Tuesday that al-Manar's remarks were a clear "attack" from Hizbullah on Jumblat. They were surprised by such an "attack," saying the MP's stance from the resistance and his rejection to link Leb to any regional crisis hasn't changed in the past three years. However, there is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened... a Hizbullah MP denied that al-Manar's criticism was a political message to Jumblat, telling al-Akhbar that the remarks were only part of the TV station's praise of al-Rahi's stance from Hizbullah. Last week, al-Rahi said the fate of Hizbullah's arms is linked to the termination of Israeli occupation of Lebanese territory and the return of Paleostinian refugees to their homeland. Al-Rahi also warned that the rise of the Moslem Brüderbund in Syria was a threat to Christians. He said Syrian President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor... should be given the chance to introduce reform. But Jumblat noted on Monday that the latest "fear-inciting remarks on the rise of Salafist ...Salafists espouse an austere form of Sunni Islam that seeks a return to practices that were common in the 7th century. Rather than doing that themselves and letting other people alone they insist everybody do as they say and they try to kill everybody who doesn't... or fundamentalist movements ... are being used as a scarecrow." He also rejected to link "Leb's fate to the liberation of the Shebaa Farms and the entire conflicts in the region." March 8 sources told al-Liwaa newspaper that Jumblat's stance reveals a rift between him and Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... . They said Public Works Minister Ghazi Aridi, who is loyal to the PSP chief, has tried in vain for three consecutive times to set a date for a visit by Jumblat to the Syrian capital.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

PSP, Hizbullah Deny Military Deployment in Mount Lebanon

2011-08-17

[An Nahar] Hizbullah and the Progressive Socialist Party denied on Tuesday local and Arab media reports that the latter had deployed security and military units in some areas of Mount Leb aimed at destabilizing the ties between the two parties. They said in a statement: "The relations between the two sides are well and they are seeking to bolster them through constant consultation and coordination." "They are also seeking to tackle political issues responsibly out of their keenness on Leb's stability," it added. Media reports stated on Tuesday that festivities broke out between the PSP and Hizbullah in the Choueifat, Deir Qoubel, and Aramoun areas. The festivities were provoked by Hizbullah after it allegedly deployed rocket launchers in the predominantly Druze area of Aley, said the Kuwaiti al-Anbaa newspaper on Tuesday. It was later revealed that the launchers belonged to Paleostinian factions affiliated with Syria. These alleged festivities were brought up during a meeting between Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Transportation and Public Works Minister Ghazi Aridi over the weekend, it reported.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Jumblat Sucks Up to Hariri

2011-07-23

[An Nahar] Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Wally Jumblat ... Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times. He'll sell you his friends for a dollar, but family comes higher because of shipping and handling... has unveiled that he held a telephone conversation with former Premier Saad Hariri Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's liquidation. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too. thanking him for his latest stance on Jumblat. The Druze leader told An Nahar daily published Friday that he heard "moving words" from Hariri but refused to give further details. Jumblat, who returned along with Minister Ghazi Aridi from Moscow on Wednesday night, said that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has welcomed Hariri's statements and decision not to close the dialogue door with Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. Breaking a nearly four-month silence, Hariri told MTV last week that he was ready to meet Nasrallah but in the presence of witnesses. "I have never been against dialogue. I am ready for dialogue for the interest of Leb. But with complete frankness, if I talk to Sayyed Hassan I want to have witnesses," he said. "Lavrov advises the Lebanese not to take their country to the lines of tension," the PSP chief told An Nahar. "This behavior does not serve Leb." Jumblat unveiled that Russian military assistance to Leb has made a major leap forward. "It is even ready to help in the railway sector." On the local situation and differences between the March 8 and 14 forces, the Druze leader said: "The new political alignment should not prevent contacts between the different parties." He stressed on the importance of respecting the point of view of others and insisting on dialogue. Hariri and Nasrallah should hold talks because "we are compelled to coexist and no one could abolish the other." Jumblat backed President Michel Suleiman's invitation for all-party talks at the Baabda palace, saying dialogue should be aimed at agreeing on the defense strategy on condition that arms are not used locally. He also stressed that Premier Najib Miqati's cabinet should "not adopt reprisal policies" against March 14 Those are the good guys, insofar as Leb has good guys... officials.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Miqati Stresses Lebanon Right to Defend Borders Against Any Violation

2011-07-14

[An Nahar] Prime Minister Najib Miqati on Wednesday stressed "Leb's right to protect all its borders and defend them against any violation." Miqati also emphasized that Leb has the right to benefit from its natural resources. During a ministerial meeting dedicated to discuss the issue of demarcating Leb's maritime borders, the premier noted that "the issue of the maritime borders will be discussed in cabinet tomorrow in order to take the appropriate decision concerning the strategy to confront the Israeli ambitions and threats." The conferees were briefed during the meeting on the process of demarcating Leb's maritime borders and the steps that should be taken to follow up on this issue with the relevant international organizations and the Republic of Cyprus, "in order to stress Leb's right to defend its borders and preserve its rights," state-run National News Agency reported. Ministers Jebran Bassil, Adnan Mansour, Ghazi Aridi, Shakib Qortbawi, Fayez Ghosn and Nicolas Nahhas attended the meeting. Miqati's sources told As Safir daily in remarks published Wednesday that during the meeting the prime minister would give instructions to prepare a file to submit it to the U.N., after Israel's cabinet approved a map of the country's proposed maritime borders with Leb that conflicts significantly with those suggested by Leb in its own submission to the world body. Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour said that the conferees would "seriously and responsibly follow the issue and come up with a comprehensive national plan to confront the Israeli aggression on Leb's rights." The plan would later be submitted to the cabinet to take the appropriate decision, he told As Safir. For his part, Energy and Water Minister Jebran Bassil hailed Wednesday's meeting at the Grand Serail as a "very important step." "It reflects the importance of maritime borders and the keenness on Leb's right," he told the newspaper. "We asked during the (tenure of the) cabinet of Saad Hariri Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's liquidation. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too. for such meetings more than seven times but no one met our request." "We should immediately resort to the U.N. to confirm not only Leb's right to its oil and gas resources and the recognition of its maritime and economic borders but also to request it to respect its decisions and international law," Bassil said.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Assad May Task Jumblat with Mediating with Turkey

2011-06-11

[An Nahar] Thursday's meeting between Syrian President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor... and Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Wally Jumblat ... Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times. He'll sell you his friends for a dollar, but family comes higher because of shipping and handling... did not focus on the issue of Leb's cabinet formation process, but rather at the possibility of tasking the Druze leader with "mediating between Syria and Turkey," whose once warm relations have grown colder over Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... ' violent crackdown on protesters, MTV reported Friday. Meanwhile, ...back at the game, the Babe was wondering why the baseball kept getting bigger and bigger. Finally it hit him... OTV reported that Assad told Jumblat that "Syria has overcome the dangerous phase and that it has started to contain the situation caused by the conspiracy plotted by some major world powers and Arab states." He also told him that there is a "plot to separate him from Hizbullah," but stressed that "the relation with the Resistance That'd be the Hezbullies, natch... stems from a deeply-rooted conviction and that he will hold on to it until the end," according to OTV. The TV network also reported that Jumblat has dispatched envoys to meet with President Michel Suleiman, Premier-designate Najib Miqati and Speaker Nabih Knobby Berri Speaker of the Lebanese parliament, a member of AMAL, a not very subtle Hizbullah sock puppet... , with the aim of briefing them on his meeting with Assad. On Thursday, Jumblat held talks with Assad in Damascus, in the presence of caretaker Public Works and Transport Minister Ghazi Aridi. During the meeting, Jumblat "voiced his hope that Syria will be able to overcome this critical period in its history through endorsing the reforms launched by President Assad," according to a statement issued by the PSP following the Druze leader's return to Beirut. For his part, Assad hoped during the talks that the Lebanese would succeed in overcoming their disputes and form a new government soon "for the country's greater good," Syria's state-run news agency ...and if you can't believe the state-run news agency who can you believe?... SANA reported.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Report: 4 Ministers Turn Down Requests from Bellemare who is Mulling Measures Against them

2011-03-03

[An Nahar] Four caretaker ministers have turned down requests from the Special Tribunal for Leb prosecutor to provide information and documents, in breach of the cooperation protocol signed with the U.N., sources close to the STL told the English-language The Daily Star. The requests made by Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare were sent last month from his office in Beirut to caretaker Premier Saad Hariri, who passed them on to Ministers Ghazi Aridi, Jebran Bassil, Ziad Baroud and Charbel Nahhas on February 24, the newspaper said Tuesday. But the four ministers have not yet complied with the requests, the sources told The Daily Star. The STL has requested a meeting with Leb's ambassador to The Hague, Zeidan Saghir, on March 7 to discuss the issue, they said. According to the daily, Bellemare is mulling to take measures against the ministers who declined to cooperate with him, such as listing them by name as uncooperative. "In his letter to Aridi, Hariri urged the caretaker minister to permit U.N. Sherlocks to question some ministry employees as witnesses and provide the requested documents as soon as possible in accordance with the Lebanese government's commitment to cooperate with the STL," The Daily Star said. "In his letter to Bassil, Hariri reminded the caretaker energy minister in his capacity as former telecommunications minister that the Lebanese government and relevant authorities must facilitate the tribunal's work and prevent the obstruction of the course of justice," it added. Hariri urged Baroud to help Bellemare's Beirut office obtain some information and documents at the departments of the interior ministry and told Nahhas to act immediately to provide the requested telecommunications data to the STL. The daily quoted parliamentary sources as saying that Nahhas had told Speaker Nabih Knobby Berri ... the Hizbullah sock puppet ... that he had stopped meeting the demands of the U.N. commission investigating ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's liquidation since last year's speech by Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in which he called on the Lebanese government and officials to boycott the STL and not cooperate with the commission. Nahhas explained to Berri that Bellemare had requested comprehensive information about telephone conversations among the Lebanese, including ministers and MPs, and that this violated the public freedom and eavesdropping law, the sources said. He confirmed to AFP on Wednesday that he did not comply with Bellemare's request for information "until the legal debate over the STL is settled at Cabinet." He revealed that he had been receiving requests by the tribunal over telephone calls between Lebanese citizens conducted seven years ago. He explained that such requests contradict "Lebanese laws on the privacy of phone calls, as well as the immunity of MPs, presidents, and other individuals" which drove him to relay the demand to the Cabinet for it to take a decision over the issue. The government however is incapable of tackling the matter as because it is still a caretaker cabinet. The minister continued by saying that he had received a request by Hariri to comply with the STL's demands, adding that had also relayed these requests to Cabinet. Asked whether the cooperation protocol between the STL and Leb does not include him, Nahhas replied: "There is a protocol, as well as laws and the constitution and we are responsible for applying the laws." "The cooperation protocol does not eliminate everything, and when affairs require clarifications, they should be sent to Cabinet," he added.

Link

Africa North

Report: Wife of Hannibal Gadhafi Aboard Jet that Was Denied Entry in Lebanon

2011-02-24

[An Nahar] A private Libyan jet that was prevented from landing at Beirut airport was carrying on board the Lebanese wife of Libyan leader Moammer Qadaffy's idiot son Hannibal, Voice of Leb radio reported Wednesday. VDL said Hannibal Gadhafi's wife, who is from the Skaff family, and several members of the ruling family were aboard the jet that Lebanese aviation authorities refused to give the permission to land at Rafik Hariri international airport on Tuesday. Several Libyan regime figures could have been among the plane's passengers, the radio station said. As Safir daily said Tuesday that the plane was due to take off from Tripoli's airport before midnight but Lebanese authorities asked Libya to unveil the identity of the 10 people on board before allowing the jet to land in Leb. When the Libyans ignored the Lebanese request, authorities in Beirut ordered airport officials to ask the pilot to divert the plane to a nearby country, either Syria or Cyprus. Later Wednesday, a security official told Agence La Belle France Presse that "the Beirut airport overnight Sunday to Monday received a request from Libyan authorities to allow a plane belonging to the Ghadafi family and transporting Aline Skaff, the wife of Hannibal Gadhafi, as well as other passengers to land." "Leb rejected the request," he said, without elaborating. A government official said acting transport minister Ghazi Aridi had earlier asked for a detailed list of the passengers who would be on board the private jet but his request was rejected by the Libyans. Hannibal Gadhafi has had numerous run-ins with the law and was notably nabbed in Geneva in July 2008 when two of his domestic workers accused him of mistreatment. The Gadhafi family is considered persona non grata in Leb, especially among members of the Shiite Mohammedan community, who believe Libya is behind the 1978 disappearance of Lebanese Shiite leader Imam Moussa Sadr. Also Wednesday, the former Libyan envoy to the vaporous Arab League, Abdul Moneim al-Honi, told the pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat that Sadr had been ordered killed during his 1978 visit to Libya and was buried in the southern region of Sebha.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Jumblat Declares Democratic Gathering End, Resurrects National Struggle Front

2011-01-25

[An Nahar] Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Wally Jumblat ... who's been on every side in Leb at least four times... on Monday announced the end of his Democratic Gathering parliamentary bloc, after four MPs of the 11-member gathering decided not to back his candidate for the premiership. Following binding consultations with President Michel Suleiman at the Baabda Palace on naming a new PM, Jumblat said that his bloc will now be renamed to the National Struggle Front. "I would've hoped to continue the road with the comrades of yesterday in the Democratic Gathering, but circumstances dictate that there is no justification for its persistence, that's why we will go back to the old, historic naming -- the National Struggle Front -- which dates back to the days of martyr Kamal Jumblat," Jumblat said. The new bloc, which voted for ex-PM Najib Miqati to head the country's next government, comprises MPs Walid Jumblat, Ghazi Aridi, Wael Abu Faour, Akram Shehayyeb, Alaeddine Terro, Nehme Tohme and Elie Aoun. The four MPs who are not part of Jumblat's bloc anymore are Marwan Hamade, Henry Helou, Antoine Saad and Fouad al-Saad. They voted for caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri later in the day. Jumblat's stance comes after he declared Friday that he will side with "Syria and the Resistance." That'd be the Hezbullies, natch... He said the aim of his decision was to preserve Leb's stability. Hizbullah and its allies last week brought down the government of Saad Hariri because of a dispute over a U.N. probe into the 2005 liquidation of Hariri's father, ex-premier Rafik Hariri.

Link

Warning: Undefined property: stdClass::$T in /data/rantburg.com/www/rantburg/pgrecentorg.php on line 132
-12 More